Blogger Interview Series - Chris Garrett
15 August, 2008 - Blogging, Interviews - 12 Comments
This is the second interview in my Blogger Interview Series. It comes from full time blogger, speaker and co-author of the ProBlogger Book, Chris Garrett. Chris has a subscriber base of almost 9,000 at his ChrisG.com blog and has built himself a honest and well deserved reputation in his field of blogging.
Interview With Chris Garrett.
Q. If, while running a new blog, you were allowed to promote your blog using just two methods, what would those two methods be and why?
Guest posting and StumbleUpon. Guest posting has many obvious advantages such as links, exposure and networking. It just works. StumbleUpon is just so easy, why would you not?
Q. If you could write a guest post for any blog but were only allowed to write one guest post in your entire life, which blog would you write for and why?
The benefits of guest posting really come when combined. One guest post wouldn’t provide me any real incentive. That said, if pressed, it would likely be a blog that hasn’t launched yet and I would guest post to help them get started.
Q. At the end of every talk I do, I include a “Random Trick to Tip” slide. This is one sentence of advice, usually entirely unrelated to the rest of the presentation. If you could give one sentence of advice to bloggers, what would that be?
Create flagship content. It sums up a great deal of my strategy and wraps up a lot of my working philosophy.
Q. Please give us a link to your favourite post on your blog. This doesn’t have to be your most popular post. Just the post which is your own favourite.
Funnily enough, it is the article that explains my previous answer 
Killer Flagship Content - Free Ebook to Download
Thanks for those excellent answers, Chris. You’ve brought up several interesting points which I would like to address below.
Guest Posting in Bulk
Of all the guest bloggers you have seen, which ones do you remember? Is it the people who had just one guest post on a blog and were never seen again? Or is it the guest bloggers who blog in bulk on one blog, or across multiple blogs? The Jane May’s (Jane was an early regular at John Chow Dot Com). The Skellie’s (Skellie guest blogged in bulk across a wide range of blogs, including ProBlogger).
If you’re going to guest blog, you need to have a strategy. You need to plan to write a series of guest posts. Writing one post on ProBlogger might bring you 50 or 100 visitors, but writing a series will do far more. Building your brand is as important as the amount of visitors you receive. Guest blogging in bulk is one of the most effective ways to stick your name in the minds of thousands of people around the world.
StumbleUpon Made Easy
If I had read Chris’ interview at the start of this year, I would be very surprised when he said achieving great results using StumbleUpon is easy. However, he’s right. Compared to all other social media, bringing in large numbers of quality visitors from SU is very simple. The key is to attract Stumblers to your blog. Once you have two or three people who Stumble new blog posts on a regular basis, you will find that most of your quality content is Stumbled. Look for Stumbled content in your niche then find out how first submitted it to StumbleUpon. Then target them (in a good way). Find their blog and start commentating. Do what you would normally do to attract a new person to your blog. Once you have them subscribed, as long as you write good quality content, you’ll find your StumbleUpon traffic in free flow.
I hope you enjoyed the interview with Chris. Please let us hear your thoughts in the comments.
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Posted on 15 August, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
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Thank you, Jamie, for featuring this incredibly useful interview.
Being able to learn from Chris’ expertise is very helpful.
As someone who is fortunate enough to be guest posting on Liz Strauss’ blog, I was interested in Chris’ views on this aspect of blogging.
I also agree with Chris that Stumbleupon is brilliant for both a blogger and for those keen to find first class web pages.
SU is unbeatable!
I’m looking forward to your next interview.
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the comment!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Chris gave some fantastic answers.
Good point about multiple guest posts. Sometimes I’ll see a guest post and click through and subscribe right away, but it usually doesn’t work that way. I might have to see their name a few times before I even click through, and then I might have to visit their blog a few times before subscribing. It’s just like how you have to see a commercial a few times before you buy the product.
Hunter Nuttalls last blog post..Mister Rogers Addresses The U.S. Senate
Hey Hunter,
Thanks for the comment.
I completely agree. When guest blogging and relatively new to its current form, I would maybe click through to the guest posters blog even if it was just one guest post, but these days when guest posting is very common, it often takes a few posts for me to really notice them. At least that’s the case if they are guest posting on a blog which has lots of guests.
@ Jamie - OMG, you’ve started already. Will get back to you asap - have been so jet lagged.
@ Chris - I’m totally with you on the guest posting thing. Folk like Skellie who did a whole heap at once commanded immediate attention. It was very powerful.
Hey Cath,
You rock, girl. Looking forward to it.
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I haven’t tried either of these techniques.
I do use entrecard. It brings traffic, but not many readers.
I also do article marketing, but having tried guest posting. I’ll give it a try.
Hey Linda,
Guest posting is a fantastic way to build a blog. I hope it goes well for you.
Thanks for the comment!
Jamie
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